Christmas vacation!

Christmas was awesome this year! It was so great to be home with our whole family!
My grandparents spent Christmas with us for the first time! They gave the whole family a parrot. After about 2 hours of trying to tame the bird, kelley finally succeeded! She got the parrot to dance, repeat, and eat a cracker!
After we opened presents, Zach and my brother in law Vak put on a show for us all. It was very entertaining!
Jonah probably took 90% of his naps in someones arms.
Here I am sitting with Jonah's presents. I was so tired all day! My wonderful husband woke up around six and brought me breakfast in bed!
Jonah got a rocking horse from his grandparents! I think he might appreciate it more next year, but it was sure cute to watch him ride it!

Good Morning Jonah!

Jonah woke up from his nap without a tear this morning. I love it when he wakes up with a smile on his face! It's the cutest thing!

merry christmas!

Go to: http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1507196549 Love, the elves

Show me that Smile again..

I finally got Jonah to give me some sort of a smile for the camera!Normally he is totally hypnotized by the little gray box flashing at him. So i distracted him this time. As you can see, Jonah is sitting in the high chair! Even though he can't exactly use it for the right purpose, he loves it.

My sister Kelley said he looks like Alice in Wonderland. I guess it's still a little too big for him.

The funniest thing was this little lion. Jonah and him became best friends very quickly. Jonah blabbered away and told stories to the Lion of goo goo gaga and wee wee oh oh. They had a really nice chat while I was making dinner.

A Diet?

Jonah had his 2 month checkup yesterday and according to our doctor, Jonah needs to go on a diet. He's in the 75th percentile for his weight and according to what the book says, he should only be eating every 4-6 hours. Instead, Jonah eats about every 2 hours!My doctor thinks that we' re mistaking his fussiness for hunger. So great. Now I'm paranoid about my baby's weight. I mean, I always thought that you shouldn't put your baby on a schedule. It's good to be fat! (My mom's sure happy) I tried to keep track of how often he was eating today, to see if I could get him to nurse further apart. But almost every two hours, Jonah was ready to nurse! I tried to calm him other than feeding him, but he's a hungry boy! My doctor said he wouldn't necessarily worry about it until he's 6 months. .and if his weight gain continues, than we need to do something about it. Gosh, I really didn't think Jonah was that big! I know he's kind of chunky, but nothing abnormal! So, what should I do? Do I continue feeding him every 2 hours or whenever he demands it? Or do I try to space it out on a schedule and probably have an angry child!
Here's dilemma #2 : Nursing. Suddenly Jonah is such a messy eater! He constantly spits milk and coughs everywhere while nursing! It's sooo frustrating! I don't know why he's suddenly having a hard time. (On top of that, He is NOT latching on well and it kills!) This morning I pumped some milk, gave him a bottle, and wallah! No problems! He gulped the milk down with no coughing, no spitting! So, do I start using a bottle from now on? Or do I continue nursing in hopes that he comes out of this phase he's going through? I don't know.. SO those are my questions. .. I'm up for any advice! I'm just new at this I guess. At least my baby eats, and his fat will keep him warm this winter!

A fun filled weekend with the Nalders

This weekend was blast! Here are the highlights of our days:
Jonah got really confident in holding himself up! He can usually only hold himself up for a few seconds, then sink down into my lap. As of yesterday, he not only pushes himself up, but than laughs as he bounces up and down on my lap! I'm so proud of him!
This picture says it all, I killed Zach at scrabble. Never challenge me! I might not know what a word means, but I know it's a word!

As Zach was burping Jonah, Jonah spit up all over Zach's foot. Gross.

I couldn't get Jonah to go to sleep, and then out of no where he fell asleep in the oddest position on me. I wouldn't want to sleep like a bunny rabbit with my face jammed up against something.

All weekend, Jonah had a blast in his crib. Since i don't have a mobile for him, I kind of created one. He loves it though.

baby it's cold outside

This literally happened in matter of hours.

My husband, who is very comfortable driving in the snow, wouldn't even go to the grocery store today. .... we're eating ramen for dinner.

So we've spent the evening lying around, watching good old 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' a classic.

Jonah's new bedroom

(Just so you all know, I am very aware that my blog has turned into Jonatopia) Okay, well I guess it's technically not a "new room" but it's Jonahs first time sleeping in it! I decided to try out the nursery last night due to a huge baby that's too big for his bassinet! I spent all day organizing Jonah's bedroom and boy he sure loves his new 'crib'. I also feel like having him sleep in his room forces me to be a better mother and actually get out bed and rock him back to sleep, rather than just putting him in bed with me. It's also really nice having our room to ourselves, and not taken over with baby stuff and dirty diapers!

Pic of the Day

Bath time

Our little Camel

Zachary started calling Jonah CJ (Camel Jonah) because of his constant spitting up. The little guy just can't seem to get it all out when I burp him after nursing.Without fail, every time I nurse him, about 30 min. to an hour later, his clothes are soaked with vomit! Today, as Zach took phim out of the car, he noticed white vomit all across the seat in front of Jonah.. Luckily he projectiled so far out that his clothes didn't get wet one bit! So to solve the problem of constantly changing his clothes, "CJ" now wears a bib EVERYWHERE! I know he looks a little funny but it sure beats going through his whole wardrobe in one day!
Problem #2: I'm embarrassed to say that we spent a couple hundred dollars on these very fancy cloth diapers! When we first saw their display at my doctors office we thought they looked so neat! The lady who makes them swears by them and says that the one size still fits her 2 year olds! We used them for about a week a month ago and than I decided to switch to our disposables that I got as a baby shower gift, until they ran out. Well, they ran out a few days ago and since than its been nothing but problems with the cloth diapers! I don't know if Jonah's legs are just too chubby but the diapers already don't fit right, and every time he pees, they leak through! It's sooo frustrating! I can't believe we spent $200 on these pieces of Junk!
I'm so mad about it that I want to go back to the doctors office with the display and write something mean like "Only buy these if you want your baby's clothes to be covered in urine all day! " I finally just gave up and bought a huge box of Pampers today. I thought we were so smart by buying cloth diapers and saving so much money! I feel so ripped off! Zach says we should just turn the diapers into a cute wall decoration in Jonah's room.. a very expensive decoration.

I'm a big kid now

Jonah is approaching 2 months this Saturday, and looking back on his pictures from the hospital, I can't believe he's doubled his weight! He was so tiny that the pants he came home in could go over his whole body! Now...what a chunker. Today I sorted through all his newborn clothes and most of them don't fit anymore!He's changing so dramatically! Everyday it seems like he adds a new trick! Yesterday he realized he could hit the rattle hanging from his toy and he just laughs and laughs! Jonah LOVES to talk! Of course all his vocabulary only consists of goooh, ahhhh, and of course ah weeh! I love watching him grow and change everyday!

makeover!

It went from this

to this

To finally This!

Much better compared to what it was. Everything on the tree is scraps I found around the house, I even tore up an old pillow case to make more bows! I'm so impatient. I didn't want to wait to go to the store.

The Start of Christmas

We couldn't wait to put up our ten dollar Christmas tree this year! As you can see from this picture, I miscalculated how many yards of ribbon we would need for the tree. Oh well, I'll fix that later. Yesterday, Zachary and I spent the day getting in the holiday spirit. First, we downloaded the greatest Christmas music of all time. The Alabama Christmas CD. What are the odds that both of us grew up listening to that album? The difference is that his family loved that cd, and my sisters and I used to gag every time we heard Thislehair the Christmas bear. Coincidentally, for both of us, that music feels like Christmas. It was a really fun night, my sister Kelley came over and brought carmeal and apples. mmmm.. doesn't get much better than that! Sadly, the canker sore in my mouth prevented me from eating as many as I wanted.
Jonah loved looking at the christmas tree! He could have stared at those lights all night!
Zachary made sugar cookies! Kelley and I were both very impressed with his baking. He even homemade cream cheese frosting! I think I might just start trusting him in the kitchen..we'll see.

Thanksgiving Vacation

Thanksgiving was a blast this year! It was so fun to be able to spend the holiday with both of our families. Some of the highlights of the trip were:



When we ate at In N Out...I think we ate here three times in three days. We were even thinking about doing a midnight run Sunday before we went home Monday morning. Luckily I fell asleep before we had the chance to be that crazy.

Since the weather is so warm in Arizona, I was able to dress Jonah in all his summer clothes. It's the only chance he has to wear it all winter.

After Jonah's blessing on Sunday, he took a peaceful nap with his grandparents. It was the cutest thing to watch him sleep all spread out between them.

My family updated our family picture this year.

It was hard trying to coordinate the color scheme and in the end we just threw it out the window. Thanks to Erik for being our photographer. He did great considering what he had to work with and especially since he had to run back and forth to get in the picture. Overall it was a good vacation. An especially nice break for me, I couldn't believe how much help I got with Jonah. It's going to be a wake up call when Zach goes back to school and work tomorrow.

More News

I just got the most shocking news! ....... Zachary just sent me a text and.......
WE'RE COMING HOME FOR THANKSGIVING!! I can't believe it! A new guy at work is taking his shifts. It's a miracle!

News

So we've desperately been trying to come home for thanksgiving next week. After spending a pretty penny on plane tickets (And we made a smart decision and did NOT buy for south west), we find out that Zach can't get work off. So Zachary has spent hours trying to find a replacement for his shifts. A couple days ago a friend of his sounded promising, and said he just needed to double check his schedule. Sadly we found out tonight that he is unable to take his shifts. I'm so sad we aren't able to come home,especially since we were planning on blessing Jonah. I just don't know what more we could do. Unless we wanted to drive down the day before and drive back the next, .. which is crazy especially with a 6 week old.I hope everyone has a blast at home without us! Luckily my sister in law Katie is unable to go home, so at least she will be here. I guess unless by some miracle we will be spending the Holiday here. Guess I'm going shopping for a turkey.

Like Father Like Son

Must be related

We went to Macy's and got some pictures of Jonah. I don't know how the photographer did it but he actually got Jonah to smile enough to get a good picture! They turned out super cute!


Okay, does he look a little different? Not much though right? This is actually Zachary when he was about 3 months old! The only difference is Jonah got my ears haha! Heres another picture of Zach. Now I know who Jonahs going to look more like when he's older!

Happy One Month!

Today Jonah is one month old! I can't believe how big he's getting! He's changing so much! As you can see from the picture, Jonah has discovered his smile. It's so cute to watch him figure out how to use those muscles.He's also loosing his hair, poor little guy. We call him our little old man. Hopefully it comes back!

The Brave One

I'm terrified of bees, worms (more like really grossed out),scorpions, and most of all spiders! Spiders are small hairy balls walking around on 8 legs!They also shoot out string and can swing around building from building and trap people in massive webs!.. okay wrong spider. But I'm used to being around 2-4 legged creatures! I have been grossed out by these creeps ever since I was young and watched the kid friendly Charlotte's Web. So Yesterday as I was doing laundry, I spotted the sickest spider on our ceiling! I have never seen anything like it, well not under the same roof.
After realizing that I was the only one around to kill the beast (Zach was at school, and Jonah was asleep, not that he could really help) I wanted to try the most resistant way to kill the monster. I decided to get the broom and smack the ceiling as hard as I could hoping that it would kill him rather than just knock him to the ground! Well that didn't exactly work out the way I hoped. The broom was back on the left side of our fridge and my arms, nor a coat hanger was long enough to reach.


Plan B. I grabbed the biggest, longest cup we had,a big gulp cup from seven eleven. I poured just a little bleach counter spray into the bottom and trapped the hideous spider in the cup. It actually worked! I finally killed it!!! I was so poud of myself I took pictures and even saved the cup to show my husband.

I love new movies!

Okay, so last night we saw Dan in Real Life. It was pretty good.. from what I saw. About 15 minutes into it, Jonah woke up and needed to be nursed. According to my sister Cristin, this is the easiest thing to do when your baby is 3 weeks old and your in a dark theater. Maybe I'm just too inexperienced because it was not as simple as I thought. I have this awesome "Hooter Hider" I got as a gift and that mixed with no light, the baby jerking his head around, and just plain awkwardness.. it just wasn't working out. Anyway, but I decided that my favorite part about going to the movie theater is watching the new trailers. Is that strange that I pay about 8 dollars just to watch all the new and upcoming releases? So after watching about ten new trailers last night, I've picked the movie that I am looking forward to seeing the most. Disney's Enchanted! Maybe it was just the mood I was in but i could not stop laughing while watching the trailer!

Jonah's Throne

Getting to Know You

It's crazy how fast you pick up your baby's body language. I remember the first night they put Jonah in the room with us at the hospital, I felt so incompetent! Suddenly there's this little 6 pound baby and I'm supposed to know exactly how to take care of him! That feeling didn't last for long, luckily. Now I understand when he's hungry, sleepy, and just wants to be held. I love being a mother! Jonah has so much personality and I love watching him grow everyday.









This is what Jonah does when he's hungry. Can you tell what he's looking for?


And this is how Jonah gets a dirty diaper, he kicks his legs all over the place trying to push all the yucky out!

pic of the day

I forget how simple a new born's life is. Eat, poop, sleep. repeat. Today after feeding Jonah for which seemed like the longest nursing session yet!.. (I don't think he understands when to stop) I put the little guy in his swing and watched as he sat with the most dull look on his face. I started feeling so guilty like, Oh no! My son is bored with his life! I must do something to entertain him! So I quickly walked (I don't think I'll be running for a while after that opisiotomy) in his room and grabbed a couple of soft toys. I attempted to amuse him by rattling and shaking toys in front of his face. There was no change whatsoever in his expression. I then realized it's going to be another couple months before he will acknowledge all of the awesome toys he has! Until then, we will just have fun by nursing, which is by far his favorite activity!